Philip Melanchthon, Bust to the Right
Medium
Woodcut; first state of three (Hollstein)
Dimensions
Sheet: 13 1/4 × 8 7/16 in. (33.7 × 21.5 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Junius S. Morgan, 1919
Accession Number
19.52.9
Tags
Art Historical Context
This striking woodcut portrait, *Philip Melanchthon, Bust the Right*, captures the renowned German humanist and Reformation scholar in a bust-length view facing right. Created by Lucas Cranach the Younger1515–1586), a master printmaker from the famed Cranach workshop in Wittenberg, it exemplifies the German Renaissance style with its precise lines and dignified rendering. Melanchthon, a close collaborator of Martin Luther, was a key theologian and educator whose ideas helped shape Protestant thought—this image likely served to honor and disseminate his likeness during a pivotal era. As a wood...